Ham

Still learning the lake. Weather was interesting. Windy then calm. RAIN and then sun. Some big nasty static electricity (also know as lightening) a little too close for comfort. Most of the time we had enough wind or rain or clouds (or combo of all three) to help keep the fish active. The shad have not moved in the backs of any of the creeks I have seen yet. The shad I graphed were in the 60 foot range. We caught a fair number of bass (LMB, spots, and smallies). Nothing of any size really. We did have several legal spotted bass, but it was a C&R trip. Water temp was about 64' on the surface. We caught fish on grubs, cranks, topwater, and spinnerbaits. Water color ranged from very clear to way too d*** clear. I saw isolated blow ups way off shore which I guess was stripers, but we did not catch any of those. I need better electronics and the gps waypoints for about 1000 deep water brush piles. I plan on fishing Norfork spring and fall. In the winter, I'll trout fish and once it warms, I'll be on the rivers and creeks.

Thanks Don. I'm going to try a few of the expensive options. I may just give that Jackall a try.

I'm trying to learn the wake bait thing as well. Yesterday, I tried it off and throughout my day on Lake Norfork (it was my 2nd trip to the lake). I've looked back and forth doing searches with various key words about waking but IF I overlooked something and ask a previously answered question Please forgive me. I'll be fishing Bull Shoals and Norfork mainly. I'm going to guess this is primarily a Spring and fall technique since the fish in the summer and winter will be very deep. I'm there on line and rod selection. I was going to stick with shad like colors. I caught one and hung another, but I had a lot more follows than takes. Is this normal? I had a big ole saltwater sized jointed Redfin. I really struggled to keep it throwing a wake and wiggling good. I understand that not all baits of the smae make and model work equally well and I had that bait along for stripers, but tried it for waking since I had flat calm and plenty of shaded bluff banks to throw at. I also got bit on a Bandit Foot loose while waking it. I tried a variety of different sized spooks, but no takers. Has anyone tried the the high dollar import stuff? If they worked, one at $15 bucks might be cheaper than buying 4 of the "cheap" ones before you get one that works. I'm not buying anything until 2008, but I'll look through all the stuff I have looking for other baits that might work in this role, I've already tried a half dozen that did not.

Nice report. About what time of day was the topwater bite? I was on Norfork yesterday, not too too far from the area you described, but a miss is as good as a mile. I caught a few fish, but I would certainly enjoyed your trip.

After all the tourneys are done for a bit, I'd like to discuss the techniques for slinging a blade at TR, BS, and Norfork. Depth, speed, blade type, etc I've had some success, but I am always looking to improve.

Hey Al: Go dip up a bunch of scuds and sowbugs. Dump those in and watch the feeding frenzy that takes place. Frozen cubes of bloodworms should work and they would "move" as the outflow from the pump broke up the cube. Young Bullhead catfish are fun. They find very interesting places to hide. I've had various tanks at different times and while they were lots of fun, I don't want to go there again.

Hey War Eagle, Not that you asked, but you really should spend some time in open water learnig to safely run your boat. Get a feel for how to run rough water. Get a feel for getting on plane and coming off place. A big ole glass boat sits down when you get off the gas and you WILL take water over the stern until you get the hang of how to do a rapid stop. FWIW 4000 rpms burns a whole heck of a lot less gas than WOT. I have fished from boats with outboards for 40 plus years and the move from a 40 hp to 150 hp was still a learning curve for me. I rode in some big boats before I ran mine, but I still had to learn for myself. Heck of a first boat! Enjoy it, but learn to use it safely.

I'd agree that all three are good boats. Sometimes a dealer will have one of the three on sale or you get a chance at a used one or whatever. I'd like a tarpon with NO keel or at least a greatly reduced keel. Glad to hear that MR has changed their design. Hopefully the good folks at WS will do away with the leaky center hatch as well. Enjoy your boats.

I have a Tarpon 120 and my wife has a Tarpon 100. Granted each year they make slight changes, but I have not had the water via the hatches issue. My boat only has two hatches. Both are on the center line of the boat. One is immediately behind the cockpit and then there is the forward hatch. I have not had leakage issues. I have read about guys developing leaks in the Manta Ray on the leading edge of a scupper hole under the seat area of the boat. All boats will develope leaks eventually if used on shallow rocky rivers during low water. Folks using a boat on lakes and ponds won't have these issues. I kinda felt like MR and the Redfish had copied the Tarpon hull very closely. I want my scupper holes in tracks so that rules out the MR. I want a big front hatch so I can stow fishing rods inside. I like the seats Tarpon have. I find them to be very comfortable. I do get out and stretch from time to time though. Lots of goood boats. If I found a better boat than a Tarpon, I'd buy it BUT so far I haven't seen better than the Tarpon.

Looks like a nice boat. I'm wondering if you looked at the WS Tarpon series before you made your choice. If you chose the Redfish over the Tarpon, I'm wondering what helped drive that choice.

Oh Bobber I wish I was. Kyle's was worse,but I had some idiot James Taylor wannabe singing far into the night at Tyler Bend. I'm ok until about midnight and then I start getting PO'ed. Agreed about the road to Kyle's. We stayed there during a monsoon weekend the ruts got worse and worse each trip in or out. Several places I didn't dare slow down as much as I would have liked to for fear of getting stick, but I was fairly white knuckled trying to keep the truck on the "road". Kyle's will teach you to use L1 or L2. Steel Creek ain't a whole lotta fun, but it's worse if you get in a hurry.

I've stayed at Tyler Bend. It can get a little noisy until the wee hours on the weekends as well. TB should be a good choice for the listed reasons, plus it has some hiking trails and the vistor center. I have friends that like Buffalo Point a lot. It is as nice as Tyler Bend from what I have heard. Off season would be better, but you can't have everything.

Basically, if you don't police your own actions, someone else eventually will. A LOT of bad behavior has gone on for a LONG time on the Spring river and the Niangua river. I's rather not have checkpoints to deal with either. I thought by having a checkpoint that alieviated the need for a probable cause. I like the Niangua. I've even caught a fish or two there. I'd like to see it without a thousand cans on the bottom one day.

If people stay away from the Spring river because they are afraid of getting caught with drugs or being drunk or some other violation of reasonable laws, I see that as a good thing. It ought to make my fishing day better. I think that if you answer an enforcement officer's questions politely and respectfully, you shouldn't have any problems UNLESS of course you're doing something illegal. I'm still going to wait a couple of years before I try a weekend during the summer break. I'm not sure how long it will take for word to spread and how long they will stay with this program. Nice river to fish except the young drunk and stoopids.

I have been told that there is limited natural reproduction of trout because the water chemistry is wrong. But,I will certainly yield to those that may have better information. In the past, my trout fishing on the Spring river has always been late summer and early fall. If the trout fishing was any easier, it would have to be a pay for fish venue. Many Islands is pretty close to the end of the trout water isn't it?

While the plastic bottles and soda cans are certainly ugly, they are all but inert and don't pose a great danger to the river itself. CHemical run off and siltation are a lot worse. Having said that, I pick up a sack full of garbage everytime I head down a stream. Ihate to see debris like that every bit as much as you do. I would definitely have hit the log jam with a tube or a topwater.

Consider fishing the Red River below Lock #3

Favorite hmmmm spook most productive ... soft plastic on a jighead.

Put in at Spring River Oaks. Take out at the low water bridge on the east bank or go all the way down to Hardy. You'll need a boat. I've never fished it like I want to, but I caught fish. This is a trip I plan to do with Cajun Angler. Hopefully this year.

Rooster tail inline spinners in 1/16 oz or 1/8 oz. White, yellow, and Chartreuse. Small crawfish lookin crankbaits or small Rapalas work as well, but might get pricey. 4 lb lets the lures fish better, but 6 lb gives you a little more breakoff insurance. With baits I listed, the line size is not an issue other than how it affects lure action and casting distance.

Yep, I'm getting old and feeble. My hair is grayer and my eyes don't work as well as they did a decade ago. I haven't noticed that I getting around any slower yet, but I need you to come hike into Hemmed in Hallow with me sometime and show me how its done. And you dropped the " your wife is the boss" bomb on me as well. So who is the kettle and who is the pot? We are both still married to wonderful women that mean the world to us. They don't seem to value fishing as much as we do, but both will paddle a yak down a river with us aand that has to count for something. By the way, How's Chief doing?

I guess it's my addiction to getting a paycheck every 2 weeks. I work at a wonderful hospital, but the pharmacy staff is so small that I can not take off whenever I want to do so. I have a lot of loyality to my hospital and my pharmacy co-workers, but I won't be here forever. Hopefully, water will still be flowing down the streambeds and smallies will still be swimming in them when I get there.

The poll is flawed if you can only vote in support if the idea. It would be much more useful and telling if everyone had both options. The lack of both options makes it look like stacking the deck. I do not have a dog in this fight. I certainly would enjoy catching more Brown trout, but I have no plans for the 11 point in my foreseeable future.

I'm going to use my A/C whenever I get hot in the car. Period.

So Kevin did you see the thread on River Smallies where folks disagreed about live bait for smallies being easier that artificals? I hate fishing behind folks using live bait for smallies. SOrry you had a tough trip. It does sound like you had some success just not as much as you hoped for on the trip.